Paxton "prosecutors" attempt to take Collin County taxpayers hostage (AGAIN)

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to hear arguments over whether the special prosecutors in the criminal case against Attorney General Ken Paxton may charge Collin County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for their services.

State law requires that court-appointed prosecutors be paid according to the predetermined schedule used to pay the attorneys for indigent defendants. However, the local rules decided upon by the judges in Collin County included an exception for “unusual circumstances,” which was invoked in the Paxton case.

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Last year, the Collin County Commissioners Court paid court-appointed prosecutors Brian Wice, Kent Schaffer, and Nicole DeBorde some $255,000, but balked in May after then-trial judge George Gallagher ordered the payment of another $205,000.

An appeals court agreed with the commissioners in August, voiding the order on the basis that the “unusual circumstances” exception conflicted with the law’s requirement of uniformity.

The prosecutors appealed that to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which stayed the order in September, before announcing Wednesday that it would formally consider the question.

That decision raises the prospect of a jurisdictional dispute in Texas’ unusual two-headed judiciary.

Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a district judge did not have the authority to order a commissioners court to pay a court official a certain salary.